Friday, November 9, 2012

Eating Salt

Besides being a religious symbol, salt is a universal symbol
of alliance and friendship. In cultures all around the world going back for
centuries in time it is well attested that when one shares salt with another a
bond of friendship is established that requires each to protect and come to the
aid of the other in time of need. This was so recognized in many cultures that
people often tricked others into eating salt with them so that an alliance
would be established. Even if done through trickery, a salt alliance was
upheld.

This tradition is part of the New Testament, but it has been
lost in translation. For example, the book of Acts begins with Luke explaining
to Theophilus that Jesus taught the people for forty days after his
resurrection. Then Luke says, “And, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem” (Acts1:4). In the
original Greek the phrase that is translated as “being assembled together with
them” is literally “to take salt in common.” This would have meant something
important to Theophilus.

The apostles often “ate salt together.” The very night of
Jesus’ betrayal, Judas shared salt with the Savior, and that is why in the
beautiful painting of the Last Supper by Da Vinci, if you look closely, you see that Judas holds a bag, presumably the silver, in his right hand, and his
left hand has just tipped over a bowl of salt—depicting the fact that Judas had broken
the fellowship and the covenant of friendship. He was a traitor.